The jazz artist Charles Mingus(born on April 22, 1922) left behind an amazing legacy that includes a stellar catalog of compositions such as "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," "Better Get Hit in Your Soul," and "Fables of Faubus"; a career that included working with many musical greats such as Duke Ellington, Eric Dolphy, Dannie Richmond, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Max Roach, and Joni Mitchell; and approaches to the jazz idiom such as directions for big bands that have been indelibly etched into jazz vocabulary. *

Mingus would have been 90 this year, but sadly he died of ALS in 1979. Sue Graham Mingus, who met Charles in the early '60s, was married to him and took care of him throughout his illness. Tonight at Noon: A Love Story, Sue Mingus' eloquent memoir, contains many memorable anecdotes of her life with Mingus. Sue has been directing The Mingus Bands for more than 30 years, and also directs Mingus jazz education outreach in New York City.

The Borderbend Arts Collective has presented ten Charles Mingus-inspired concerts, including nine Mingus Awareness Project concerts in Chicago and Richmond, Virginia. Borderbend is planning special programming this year, in honor of Mingus' 90th birthday -- including the next Mingus Awareness Project concert which happens at Fitzgerald's on May 17th. More announcements will be made soon...* Many excellent books about Mingus have been published. Check out Gene Santoro's Myself When I Am Real, Mingus' autobiography Beneath the Underdog, and Sue Mingus' Tonight at Noon.